Night of the Eclipse
by night flame miko
Summary: DISCONTINUED. When Kagome stumbles through the dark created by an eclipse, she meets someone unexpected. As circumstances change she finds herself thanking the Kamis for her strange encounter...
1. Chapter 1: Kagome

Night of the Eclipse

_**Night of the Eclipse**_

**AN: I do not own Inuyasha.**

Chapter One: Kagome

Kagome stumbled through the inky blackness surrounding her, growling in anger. She had been at a hot spring when the eclipse happened; Sango had left a little while earlier. Kagome had just finished getting dressed when the light faded from the sky a couple hours early. At first Kagome hadn't worried, but all too soon did she realise her mistake. Without any electrical lighting, and no sun to light her way, well, she finally knew what it was like to be blind.

Stubbing her toe, Kagome cursed fluently, using some of Inuyashas' finer words. She considered yelling for him but dismissed the idea almost immediately, for a number of reasons:

One: they were camped too far away from where she was,

Two: Inuyasha may just ignore her,

Three: who knew what kind of person/thing may hear her and

Four: pride.

She would just have to wait out the eclipse. But she planned to do that in a clearing, where she could 'watch' the sky re-alight with soft grass beneath her and hopefully no rocks and twigs, such as what she was stumbling over right now.

Continuing on with grim determination Kagome wondered briefly if she was even headed in the right direction. Pushing the unsettling thought away, Kagome exclaimed happily as she pushed through some bushes and felt a cool breeze kiss her overheated body, meaning a clearing was in front of her. Then she realised she had walked far longer than was a good idea, she was exhausted.

Thinking of finally laying down on the grass beneath her feet Kagome squeaked in surprise when her feet managed to trip over what was probably the only rock in the whole clearing. Hitting the ground she twisted onto her back only to hear something that nearly made her heart stop.

"Watch where you are going human." Sitting up quickly Kagome tried unsuccessfully to pierce the darkness. Resorting to her only line of defence, Kagome responded angrily,

'Well that's gonna be a bit hard considering I may as well be blind in this blackness.' She regretted what she said straight away, she had just revealed that she was pretty much defenceless. Then guilt took over as well, she had tripped over someone/thing and didn't even bother to apologise?

'Look, I'm sorry I tripped over you. As you pointed out, I am human and my eyes are pretty much useless right now.' He already knew that she was blind, so she had no need to try and hide the point. Hopefully this yokai wouldn't kill her for whatever reason he came up with. I mean it's obvious he's a yokai, isn't it? He called her human as if it was an insult.

'Hn.' for some reason that 'Hn' sounded real familiar. Her day just keeps getting better. First the eclipse and now finally finding a clearing only to have it already taken and by a yokai no less. Huffing Kagome stood and dusted herself off, deciding that if the yokai wanted to kill her he would have already. She marched until finding a tree, plopping herself down she leaned against it with a sigh of relief.

'Human, you are not leaving?'

'No, yokai, I am not.'

'If you know that I am yokai then why do you not leave?'

'You would have killed me already if you wanted to and I have spent too long looking for a bloody clearing to leave when I finally find one on the off chance I'll be killed if I stay.'

'Hn.' This demons attitude reminded her of Inuyasha for some reason and man did that piss her off. It was all Inuyashas' fault she was stuck here in the first place! He had been going on and on about jewel shards and how she was a useless shard detector because she hadn't sensed a shard already. Finally she had snapped and went to a hot spring she had spotted a mile back. Inuyasha had threatened that he would keep going without her, but she went anyway, Sango came with her to protect her should anything happen, but she thought she heard something and decided to leave early and now here Kagome was, trapped in darkness with some yokai opposite her probably planning the best way to torture her to death and as far as she was concerned, and it was all Inuyashas' fault!

'Damn Inuyasha, when I find you, you are going to get your ass sat all the way to America.' She mumbled to herself.

'Inuyasha?' The demon asked, probably wondering who she was mumbling about, his hearing is really good; Kagome thought to herself, I mean she was a whole clearing away from him and he could still hear her mumble to herself.

'He's someone I travel with, and if it wasn't for him I wouldn't be in this situation.'

'Oh?' This guy was the king of monosyllables. But she was glad for any form of communication at this point, plus the fact he actually seemed curious.

'Well we had an argument so I went to cool off in a hot spring when this eclipse happened, now I'm stranded till everything lightens up again.'

'Hn…I've heard of this Inuyasha, a hanyou, some say he has a sword that can slay a hundred demons in one strike.' Sighing Kagome nodded, forgetting about the darkness.

'Yeah, he does, he's so bloody protective of that thing as well, you would think it was a child not a sword. I actually got it for him, because there was a weird spell on it that stopped him from getting it, so I pull out the stupid sword and give it to him and do I get a thank you? No! He isn't anything but an arrogant jerk!'

Kagome closed her eyes and breathed out, remembering the fight between Inuyasha and his older brother, Sesshoumaru clearly.

'Should have given the bloody sword to Sesshoumaru, at least then I might have had some gratitude before he tried to kill me.' Kagome muttered to herself, forgetting the yokais' hearing. A chuckle resounded through the clearing, startling her.

'Yes, you should have. I… know Lord Sesshoumaru, but he would not have been grateful, he has no use for emotions, those are human weaknesses.'

'Yup, but I love my weakness most of the time, sometimes I feel sorry for you yokai, refusing to feel emotions must be horrible, sometimes I wonder how yokai like Lord Sesshoumaru found the need to get rid of their emotions so thoroughly.'

'What do you think of him?' Visibly startled she again tried to look through the shadows, wondering whether she was talking to Sesshoumaru himself, but then realised there was no way he would ask her opinion on something. Actually he probably would have killed her on sight.

'Well he tried to melt me.' Kagome stated, but she continued unaware that two amber eyes watched her from across the clearing, 'but even then I get the feeling he didn't do it for pleasure, more that he had a goal and I was in the way.' Kagome said thoughtfully. She had tried to hate Sesshoumaru for attempting to kill her, but she couldn't for long, it just wasn't in her nature to hate, and as always she came up with reasons for the person to have done what they did to her, it was actually very annoying.

'You've forgiven him?' The demon asked, apparently surprised, though his voice betrayed very little.

'Well…yeah. If he had tried to torture me to death then maybe I could hate him but if I think about it I would have been dead quickly and pretty painlessly if the Tetsaiga hadn't protected me, also I was in the way of him and what he wanted…' In her mind her argument seemed better.

'He tried to melt you, I don't call that any form of painless.' The demon stated. Kagome only huffed, getting annoyed. It wasn't right to talk about someone as regal as Sesshoumaru behind his back like this, though he probably gets it all the time considering who and what he is.

'Look I can think of much worse things than being melted, compared to some ways of dying I'd pick a melting any day. Also I interrupted a fight between two yokai, be they half brothers or not, if I jump into a fight like that then I have to fight and possibly die, I had it coming. I joined the fight and had what Sesshoumaru wanted, he had every right to kill me, and as has been proved from further battles, if I don't jump in he doesn't try to kill me. So leave him alone. I learn from my mistakes and move on from past grievances, so stop trying to blame Sesshoumaru for something he had every right to do!' Kagome was breathing deeply, her eyes alight and angry after her little speech, she had no idea why she was defending Sesshoumaru when despite what she had said, he had tried to kill her! But from what she could tell he had honour and unlike some other yokai he didn't kill for the hell of it, only when the situation required him to, or he particularly hated that person (in Inuyashas' case for example and she completely understood that).

As her anger cooled Kagome shivered, suddenly aware of the cold air around her. The wind played through the trees and across the clearing, it felt like the cold went straight through her and bit at her bones. Today was just not her day. The cold must have been increasing slowly with no sun to heat the land, and thinking about it she probably just pissed off that yokai, she had spoken rather harshly and very disrespectfully.

Hunching into herself she tried to preserve what little heat she had left, wishing she had thought to bring her jacket with her. For the second time that night her heart nearly stopped (she could have sworn it at least skipped a few beats) as a voice suddenly whispered directly into her ear:

'You are cold ningen.' Trying to contain her shivering Kagome looked up to where she thought his eyes would be,

'Yeah, but don't worry I shouldn't die from a breeze.' She joked even as her teeth chattered and she started to shake uncontrollably.

'Yes, you might.' Suddenly she felt him sit next to her, pick her up and place her one armed, into his lap, soon something warm and wonderfully soft was wrapped around her.

'No, you don't have to. I know yokai don't like ningen, you don't need to do this.'

Kagome said even though the warmth seeping into her was wonderful and her limbs no longer shook. But the demon merely pulled he closer before whispering into her ear,

'This is for forgiving m…Sesshoumaru. Not many understand what he is like.' Unable to stop herself she snuggled closer to him before suddenly realising something: she had no idea who this was, for all she knew it was Naraku! Feeling her stiffen a hand started rubbing soothing circles over her back through the fluffy thing.

'What now ningen?'

'I have no idea who you are.'

'Neither I, you.' Kagome blushed, she couldn't believe her manners! Turning slightly she stuck a hand out of her protective wrapping,

'Well my name is Kagome Higurashi current companion of Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango and Shippou and attempted protector of the Shikon no Tama.' Gasping Kagome suddenly realised what she said, this demon may kill her for the jewel shards! But instead a strong, clawed hand gripped her own hand lightly, raised it and kissed the back of her hand. Blushing she retrieved her hand as that wonderfully deep and melodious voice said behind her,

'I am Uramohsess, Lord of the Western Lands.'

'Wow… that's a mouthful.' She felt a rumbling behind her and realised he was holding back laughter,

'You may call me Ohses.'

'Thanks Ohses-sama.' She said grinning, for some reason his name was ringing bells in her mind, but she knew she would remember such a weird name as his so dismissed the bells when she realised something,

'Ohses-sama, since you are a lord won't other yokai disagree with a ningen…um…sitting in your lap?' Kagome was once again blushing furiously and was extremely grateful to the darkness for hiding her blush, she was so distracted by the heat on her cheeks she almost missed his comment,

'You have no idea.' He had said it to himself and obviously didn't realise she could hear him, louder he stated coldly,

'If you tell anyone of this then I will kill you.'

It was said in such a matter-of-fact way that Kagome couldn't help herself, she laughed, Ohses stiffened behind her,

'I meant that in the utmost seriousness.'

Gulping air into her heaving lungs Kagome forced herself to speak between bouts of laughter,

'I know Ohses-sama, it's just I don't think you realise how much you sounded like Lord Sesshoumaru right then, you must know each other very well.'

'Indeed.'

Slowly he relaxed behind her again and as her light laughter finally subsided Kagome slumped against him, feeling slightly drained, but still smiling happily. She hadn't laughed that much in ages, she hadn't realised how stifling Inuyasha could be until now.

As Kagome relaxed almost falling asleep, the hold she had over her aura loosened enough for her aura to reach out and touch Ohses' yokai, lazily it almost rubbed against his, he had again stiffened behind her, but she didn't care, the feeling his yokai was creating on her aura was too interesting. But then her aura started to do what it did best, tell her information on the emotions that the person/thing it touched felt, and she knew that Ohses felt he was missing something, something important, and he was disgusted that it was gone, she could feel it, the thing he was missing was physical, not mental like it usually is.

You see, this is Kagome's empathy, she had learned the hard way that all mikos' posses the ability, this ability allows someone to feel another's emotions as their own. She had first used it by accident when Sango saw Kohaku the first time, she had reached out and soothed her friends aura as best she could, feeling Sango's grief and agony as her own, but it is not only Sango but also Shippou, when he felt happy or sad, she would feel it as well, even Miroku who is normally calm and collected (except when fondling girls) would sometimes look down at his right palm and become anxious.

Kagome had learnt that she could soothe her friends' auras by sending out her own, even Inuyasha who would sometimes look at her and feel incredible grief, and then she knew he was thinking of Kikyo.

She had healed them mentally, but this time was different, Ohses required a physical healing, and this would be hard, because she could tell the wound was old, but she would do it for him, he was after all, keeping her warm, and had as of yet, to kill her.

Turning to straddle him she felt his yokai shift from relaxed to wary immediately. To calm him she said what first came to mind,

'You are missing something important, something I can heal.' She felt his surprise and slight confusion.

'This Se…Ohses, does not require healing.' Wow, he had even picked up the third person thing from Sesshoumaru. For some reason Kagome felt as if something obvious was staring her in the face, but pushing her thoughts aside (she needed to be in a slight meditation state to complete the healing), she ignored him and reached out with her aura.

Sending it out over him she tried to determine where the missing thing was, as her aura touched him she had to stop herself from shivering in fright when he growled warningly, his back becoming even stiffer.

Suddenly her aura reached the place where the missing thing was…it was his left arm. Kagome felt the world realign as understanding hit her,

'Sesshoumaru.' She breathed and his growl suddenly stopped, usually a bad sign. His yokai shifted as she felt his emotions (yes he has them), annoyance, anger and finally the need to leave, to escape, she could feel as he prepared to run, what amazed her was not once did he feel like killing her for her discovery.

Pushing her arm out of his pelt, which she realised he had used to keep her warm, she placed her hand upon his chest,

'Don't you dare run Sesshoumaru,' she could practically feel his eyes boring a hole into her, 'How am I supposed to heal your arm if you leave?'

Again surprise filled his yokai and Kagome supposed that he thought she wouldn't heal him, now that she knew who he was. Instead she reached out further and lightly touched her hands to each shoulder then gathering her aura to her she sent her miko aura out into him. His yokai reared and started surrounding her and her aura, trying to smother her out of existence, believing she was trying to purify it, through clenched teeth Kagome muttered, 'Control yourself Sesshoumaru, I'm not going to purify you.' She could feel his anger radiating off of his aura and she started to wonder whether he could or would even control his yokai, it was the biggest she had ever felt, and right now it was using all its power to smother her…and it was winning. But then the yokai was slowly reined in, she felt as its power was drawn back, and she suddenly realised the trust Sesshoumaru was placing in her, without his yokai to guard him she could purify him easily, she would prove he had not misplaced that trust.

Pushing her aura into both arms she let the aura fill his one arm and to fill his stump, then she began the healing process, using her aura she felt how his right arm was made up, then began copying the make up into his left stump, growing out veins, arteries, bones and muscle to be the left arm equivalent of the right. As she forced his body to heal she felt her already depleted aura struggling to do what she required, the fight she had had with his yokai had really weakened her, but she kept forcing it, she was already more than halfway done, but even she could tell she would not have enough power for a full healing, and angrily she kept pushing her aura to heal him, she hated doing half jobs, and this half job may just get her killed as once a healing is started it has to be completed, many mikos' die because they start a healing and are forced to use their life force to complete the healing.

But suddenly she felt his right hand move and was placed on her back, and then to her amazement Sesshoumarus' yokai was pushed into her through her back, she could feel no ill intent, so taking her remaining aura she refused to let it attack him.

'Use it, miko, to finish the job.' Surprise took over her; he was offering her his aura to finish with? Did he know that he was saving her? This was way more trust then letting her just heal him. Hesitatingly she touched his yokai, and when it didn't attack her, she gathered it to herself, it felt so powerful! Like a snake coiling lazily, waiting to strike. Telling it her purpose it felt almost as if his aura understood her. Just as her aura ran out she sent his own yokai back into him, with the object of healing him as her aura had done, fighting exhaustion she used his yokai to form his wrist; she created skin and bones, veins and finger-nails, and finally as his hand was done, she formed the magenta stripes on his wrist to be the reflection of his right armed ones, releasing the rest of his yokai back to him, she sat up with difficulty.

Smiling tiredly she could feel the exhaustion settle into her, she had gone way past her limits, 'All done Sesshoumaru… thanks for… letting me…use your…yokai…I…wouldn't have…finished…without it…' Her eyes drifted closed and she realised she really shouldn't fall asleep in Lord Sesshoumarus' lap, but for some reason couldn't bring herself to care.

Slipping, she started to fall off him, but two strong arms caught her and laid her back against his chest, the pelt was re-wrapped firmly around her, having fallen down sometime during the healing, then she heard the deep voice again, 'Sleep Kagome, I will let no harm come to you.' He was protecting her? And he said her name? It took ages for Inuyasha to use her name. Abiding his wishes she let go.

Just before he felt Kagome fall asleep he heard her soft voice,

'Uramohsses? Should have realised…your name backwards…sometimes…feel so…stupid…'

He couldn't help it; he smiled at this miko in the darkness. She really was something.

7


	2. Chapter 2: Sesshoumaru

Chapter 2: Sesshoumaru

Chapter 2: Sesshoumaru

He had been enjoying the night when he heard her stumble through the undergrowth, headed right in his direction. Sighing inwardly he raised an eyebrow when he recognised her scent; it was that hanyous' wench. What are the chances that she would come upon him when she had the whole forest to roam? Next to nothing. So of course that was when he saw her push her way past some bushes and into his clearing, her sigh of relief was easily heard, obviously she had wanted to find a clearing for whatever reason.

She made her way forward carefully and he realised that in the darkness of the eclipse and her being a human with a human's weak eyesight, she would be close to or completely blind, but the night was too peaceful to make use of this advantage, and slaughtering someone be they human or not, was not honourable when they are unable to defend themselves.

With the direction she was heading, she would walk right by him and so he decided that it was time for some light entertainment. He was glad no one could see him do something as foolish as what he was about to do, but even demon lords need some fun every now and then. As she came past he placed a foot out in front of her and watched with some satisfaction as she tripped and sprawled face first on the ground. Apparently she trips herself up a lot as she seemed not too surprised that she had fallen even though she was walking very carefully. Smirking he watched her twist onto her back.

'Watch where you are going human.' She sat up quickly and he could see her trying to break the darkness, but she obviously could not see him. To his surprise she felt no fear; what was wrong with her? As far as he was concerned he had made it blatantly obvious he was a yokai, but she must not have caught on because she talked back to him! She even mentioned that she was blind, telling him her weakness. He knew she had no idea who he was; otherwise he would have considered killing her for her disrespect.

But to his complete surprise he suddenly heard her apologise. So he did something he normally never did with a human, he read her aura and took a long breath of her scent. She felt guilty and was truly sorry for what she had done! Very unusual, he checked the sky but remembered that it was an eclipse tonight, for he had once told someone that the day a human apologised and meant it, that night the moon would turn blue. The eclipse must be making this human do some very weird things.

'Hn.' His standard answer. The human huffed and stood up, he expected her to leave, and she seemed to be doing just that, but when she reached the other side of the clearing she stopped by a tree, and amazingly sat down. He decided to try and reinforce the point that he was yokai, and being in the same clearing as him was not a good idea.

'Human, you are not leaving?' Satisfied that he had made the word 'human' sound as if it was the worst thing to have ever bothered to exist, he waited for her to leave, but instead he got a reply,

'No, yokai, I am not.' So she knew he was yokai? Interesting. She also managed to make yokai sound even worse then human, pretty amusing, he was almost tempted to smile.

'If you know I am yokai then why do you not leave?' Most likely the longest sentence he'd said in a month.

She proceeded to explain that he would have killed her already if he wanted to and that she had, indeed, been searching for a clearing and that the possibility of being killed was not a good enough reason to leave now that she had found one. Very interesting, it was almost worth having his peaceful night interrupted just to speak to this unusual human.

He suddenly realised that he had no idea what her name was, but there was no way in the seven hells that he would ask first. At the moment the human seemed deep in thought and so he took the time to study her, she was wearing her usual horribly indecent clothing and he was surprised that she wasn't cold, indeed she seemed completely oblivious to the increasing bite of the wind, whilst he could not feel cold he could tell that the temperature was slowly dropping.

He was wrenched out of his thoughts when she mentioned Inuyasha, in fact what she said was very amusing if not confusing, apparently she was going to 'sit' him until he reached 'America', wherever that was. His curiosity increased.

'Inuyasha?' He wondered why she was so angry with his idiotic half-brother, her aura was flaring wildly, but even though he knew she was a miko, he could hardly feel her power at all, was she so weak? Her aura, whilst strong in personality, hardly contained any miko power at all. She mistook his question, apparently believing he did not know who Inuyasha was; she also blamed Inuyasha for being 'in this situation.' He did not believe she was in a situation, if he was trying to kill her, then maybe that would be a situation, but right now she was having a conversation, one he was even participating in, with the Lord of the Western Lands, and he had yet to even threaten her life.

When he questioned her she went on to explain why she was angry, for some reason he was actually interested. Then realising he could gain some information on the tetsaiga he pretended to not know who Inuyasha was, saying he had heard of him before, the hanyou who could kill 100 yokai with one sweep of his sword. The girl nodded apparently forgetting that in the darkness he should have not been able to see her. She went on the explain about the sword, but it was nothing he didn't know all ready, he was surprised that she gave up the information so easily, she must be really angry with his brother, she even mentioned the fight between Inuyasha and him.

Returning to her thoughts, he watched, contemplating leaving when all of a sudden she muttered something that nearly made him laugh, and whilst that didn't happen it did surprise a chuckle out of him. She looked at him surprised. He was very amused; she believed if she had given the sword to him she may have received gratitude? Then he realised she was being sarcastic, but he decided to continue this line of thought, it was amusing and this night he had been more interested and amused by something than in the last century, in fact he wasn't sure if a human had ever interested him this much before.

He told her that 'Lord Sesshoumaru' would not have been grateful to her, but that she should have given the sword over anyway, for some reason he did not reveal his identity and she did not seem to care who she was speaking to. Then a sudden curiosity hit him, but he forced himself to sound uninterested,

'What do you think of him?' He asked, comforted in the thought that for once he was going to get an honest answer, as the girl did not know she was speaking to Sesshoumaru himself.

'Well he tried to melt me.' She stated immediately, and for some reason he almost felt guilty…almost. Watching her carefully he listened as she continued, and was shocked as from what she said it almost sounded like she forgave him.

'You have forgiven him?' He was unable to hide the surprise from his voice, he had to know if she had, he had never met a demon, let alone a human; who had forgiven and understood the motivation of why another would try to kill them.

She explained that she had and why, and how it didn't seem to matter because the Tetsaiga had protected her, she even insinuated that it might have been painless.

He couldn't believe it, sounding as sarcastic as possible he replied,

'He tried to melt you, I don't call that any form of painless.' And to his amazement, she defended him. She went into a long speech about why it didn't matter, about his probable motivations and she even went so far as to blame herself for Sesshoumaru nearly killing her. It touched him. He was actually touched that someone would set aside her anger and even try to understand the reasons behind his actions.

Watching her he could smell her changing emotions, it seems she was as confused about her defending him as he was. Suddenly she drew her knees up and even he could clearly see her shivering from across the clearing, apparently the cold had finally gotten to her.

He tried to convince himself it didn't matter, but it became obvious that the cold may be too much for her weak human body to withstand, and his honour wouldn't let him watch her die from the cold after she defended him so thoroughly. Standing he silently made his way over to her, unruffled by the cold breeze flowing over the grass. Keeping his senses aware he noticed no demons nearby, he had been horribly distracted and had even let his guard down whilst talking to her, a mistake he hadn't made since he was a child. It was unnerving that she could do this to him. Putting his mouth right next to her ear he whispered to her,

'You are cold ningen.' Normally he would have been satisfied as her heart stuttered over a few beats, but for some reason it annoyed him that he had scared her, but she quickly regained herself, and the slight whiff of fear he had smelt coming off of her disappeared, replaced with wary annoyance then even…happiness?

'Yeah, but don't worry I shouldn't die from a breeze.' She joked with him. Again he was slightly surprised, even though she did not know who he was, no one had ever joked with him, even his father had always been serious around him.

'Yes, you might.' He replied, recovering. Reaching round her he picked her up, put her in his lap, and wrapped his pelt around her. He tried, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't be disgusted with the thought of this human sitting in his lap, not when she had defended his honour whilst believing she would get nothing in return.

'No, you don't have to. I know yokai don't like ningen, you don't need to do this.' At first he thought she objected because she didn't wish to be in the lap of a yokai, but then he realised that she truly meant what she said, her aura was one of understanding, not disgust. Pulling her closer he was relieved to see that her shaking had stopped as had her teeth chattering.

'This is for forgiving m…Sesshoumaru, not many understand what he is like.' He had nearly slipped up, that also didn't happen often, she inspired the most interesting reactions from him, and for some reason he didn't want her to know who he was, she would probably run, scream, throw insults at him, all the usual things and for some reason he didn't want that to come from her.

Relaxing he let his senses analyze the surroundings, finding no threat nearby he refocused his attention on the girl in his arms when he suddenly felt her stiffen, wondering what was wrong he absently rubbed circles on her back through his pelt, as she slowly relaxed he asked her,

'What now ningen?'

'I have no idea who you are.' She replied to his amusement.

'Neither I, you.' He responded, he saw her aura shift and the faint smell of guilt and embarrassment wafted through to him. Shifting in his lap she stuck out her hand to him, he regarded it curiously, wondering what she thought him to do with it. Then she introduced herself, at first he wondered what to do, tell her who he was or not, he sensed her alarm when she realised she had let slip about the shikon no tama, but he was not interested in trivialities such as the jewel.

Taking her hand he kissed it as a lord would a lady, amazingly a blush spread over her features, clearly she had not expected that, he wondered again what she had expected him to do with her hand. As she regained her hand he decided to give her a clue on who he was, if she could figure it out then good for her if not then good for him. Quickly working it out he told her his name backwards and even said he was the lord of the western lands, his proper title; but still she remained none the wiser. At first he was disappointed by her apparent lack of intelligence, but then he realised it was not a lack of intelligence, merely her too trusting nature that led her to be so easily deceived, after that he was relieved as he did not know how she would react to knowing who he was and that thought was not a good one, he prided himself in his ability to always know how others would react to a situation.

He was pulled roughly from his thoughts when her miko aura suddenly started to rub against his yokai, stiffening he waited for her to attempt to purify him, but it never came, instead her miko aura now considerably stronger than before, continued to caress his yokai, it created the most curious sensation, but the purity of it only reminded him that he was less then pure both physically and mentally, mentally he was less as he had killed more then he could count and physically he was missing his arm, yes less than pure. Slowly relaxing again he enjoyed the sensation, liking the feeling of her resting against him and trying to drown out his dark thoughts. This was the first time a female of any species sat in his lap and did not try to seduce him; it was a rather pleasant experience.

But that quickly ended when she turned and straddled him, he was immediately wary, he had thought she was better than this. Waiting for her to begin some form of seduction or another he actually felt regretful, but she completely surprised him, telling him he was missing something and she wanted to help.

'This Se…Ohses does not require healing.' He told her, angry that she thought him weak enough to require healing from a human. But apparently she was going to ignore him because her aura pushed past his yokai and started to move over him, he was taken completely by surprise, stiffening he growled warningly, it actually seemed as if she didn't realise the position she was in, she could purify him right now and there was nothing he could do to stop it, he briefly considered dumping her off his lap and leaving, but no sooner had he had this thought when her aura came upon his stump, it stopped moving and swirled around and her aura changed from curiosity and determination to shock,

'Sesshoumaru.' He heard his name come from her filled with surprise, he waited for the surprise to turn to anger or disgust, but then realised if it did, he couldn't deal with it, she was the first being who had actually treated him like a person (except Rin, but she didn't count, she was too young to realise the danger he represented), for the first time in centuries he decided to retreat, to run, to escape before she changed into someone he didn't want to know, the angry, distrustful person all beings became around demons.

But before he could move a hand was placed on his chest, looking down he saw her looking blindly into the space she supposed his face to be,

'Don't you dare run Sesshoumaru,' He glared at her, how did she know he was going to run? 'How am I supposed to heal you arm if you leave?'

He was taken by surprise… again. She did not fear him? She still wished to help? But… that didn't make sense, sure she said she had forgiven him, but that was before she knew who she was talking too, could it be true? He had tried to kill her and she brushed it aside and now wished to heal the very arm his brother had taken whilst protecting her.

The placement of her hands on his shoulders brought him crashing back to reality, he watched as she suddenly started to glow, and then it hit him, the full power of her miko aura, it was as if she had opened a door and the full power could now come out, she must keep it locked away in her mind until she needs it, she was in no way as weak as he had first believed her to be.

Then the incredible power that was her miko aura was pushed through her hands and into him, and it hurt, his yokai automatically went to his defence, reaching out for the girl it started smothering her, and even though her power was large it was not as big as his, as it smothered her he could feel her strength waning and he was very tempted to just let his yokai do away with her, but then she spoke,

'Control yourself Sesshoumaru; I am not going to purify you.' At first he was incensed that she believed she could speak to him like that, she had no excuse now that she knew who he was, but as he felt his yokai continue to eat at her he realised he couldn't kill her this way, not when she was apparently trying to help him. Reaching out he gathered his yokai to him and forced it back into it's cage, as soon as he did he felt her sag against him, but then her miko aura continued its journey down both his arms and it burnt, like having fire on the inside of his skin, but he voiced no complaint, as she had as of yet to purify him and he had felt worse, not that he could remember it right now but he was sure to later.

That was when she began the healing, it was the most curious of sensations, his skin expanded as a new arm was grown and pushed out, he felt his veins being made and new blood flowing through them, his bones stretched and grated against each other as they formed, funny enough the actual growing of the arm hurt no where near as much as the miko power in him, it was more a welcome distraction. But he could also feel her tiring, she was putting her all into this, he had wasted her power needlessly in fighting his yokai, and so he would do something that far surpassed the trust of not purifying him.

He raised his right arm and placed it on her back underneath the pelt, then taking his yokai he formed a flow of it and passed it through his arm into her, telling her to use it to complete her task he felt her surprise and awe, he was surprised when her aura did not attack him but instead he felt her tentatively grip his yokai, then more firmly. He could feel her exhaustion as she used the last of her aura to form his wrist, almost immediately she sent his yokai back to him but commanded it to heal him, he was amazed when it did her task without complaint, he had expected a fight and some help needed from him, but instead his yokai went to work for this human miko, forming his hand and even the magenta stripes which would have appeared on their own given time.

The exhaustion surrounded her like a blanket; it was so strong it almost affected him.

'All done Sesshoumaru… thanks for… letting me…use your…yokai…I…wouldn't have…finished…without it…' She did not blame him for using up her strength in the first place?

He wondered whether she understood the significance of what he had done. By sharing their aura's like they had a bond will now have been formed, their souls will entwine throughout the night. Sighing he considered the consequences, by tomorrow they would be linked mentally, if they nurtured the bond they would be able to speak with each other in their minds, if they did not they would only feel the others emotions, no matter how far away from the other they were. Sighing inaudibly he regarded her, already he could feel the bond forming, by tomorrow he would know exactly how she was feeling, and considering their past experiences he knew she was a very emotional person, just what he needed he thought sarcastically, he was the king of being emotionless and he had bonded with the queen of emotion.

Feeling her slipping off of him he caught her in his arms and brought her back to him, re-wrapping the pelt around her he ordered her to sleep, he would let no harm come to her, how could he now that they were bonded? He refused to acknowledge the traitorous thought that he would have protected her whether they were bonded or not.

As he heard her slipping into sleep, abiding his wishes, he vaguely heard her mutter something, concentrating he heard her say,

'Uramohsses? Should have realised…your name backwards…sometimes…feel so…stupid…'

Unable to stop it a smile formed as he looked at this miko in the darkness, so she had figured it out in the end.

7


	3. Chapter 3: Kagome x Sesshoumaru

Chapter Three: Kagome & Sesshoumaru

Chapter Three: Kagome & Sesshoumaru

Kagome woke up the next day feeling completely refreshed, opening her eyes she drowsily realised a few things: she wasn't with her friends, she had no idea where she was, there was a fluffy white thing wrapped around her and she was sitting in someone's lap. As the last thought filtered through her brain her recollections of the night before suddenly came rushing back. Twisting slightly she looked up and sure enough there was Sesshoumaru apparently sleeping with the most peaceful expression she had ever seen on his face, she had the strongest urge to reach up and trace the markings especially the crescent moon, she wondered idly if they felt different from the rest of his skin or if they were like tattoos.

As she stood carefully she watched him for any signs of waking, once safely standing she un-wrapped his wonderfully soft pelt and laid it in his lap, then she stretched feeling all her slightly cramped muscles un-knot, as she finished she quickly glanced around the clearing before stopping and staring. A wave of absolute happiness and peace settled over her, last night in the darkness she must have stumbled unknowingly into heaven. She thought this because the clearing was surrounded with the most beautiful cherry blossom trees in full bloom, and around the outside of the clearing was a multitude of flowers all complemented by the fresh green grass in the center, it was the single most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

Looking over to Sesshoumaru she realised they had slept under one of the largest of the cherry blossom trees and littered all around Sesshoumaru were the blossoms which must have fallen during the wind last night, he looked magnificent she thought in awe, that was when she realised his eyes were open and he was silently regarding her, eeping a light blush crept over her cheeks before she stuck out her chin defiantly, she was allowed to look where she wanted!

He stared calmly at her and finally she gave up, huffing she sat on the ground, contemplating how she was going to get back to her friends, she had no idea where they were and for all she knew she had headed off in the completely wrong direction last night. As she was contemplating her few options she suddenly realised something was different, not around her, no, it was in her mind. She delved into her mind, inside she found the usual door to her miko powers, she normally kept it locked up as she didn't like having all that power constantly in the background, she wasn't used to the feeling it gave her, so she had found a way to lock it up till she needed it.

But now there was another door except this door was wide open and through it were drifting what felt like someone else's emotions, it felt calm and collected. Frightened by this discovery she tried to close the door but no matter how hard she pushed, the space in her mind remained wide open and the emotions continued to come through.

'Kagome.' The voice dragged her out of her mind and she refocused on her surroundings.

Sesshoumaru was now crouching a few feet from her, his eyes level with hers.

'What's going on?' She asked fearfully, she didn't like it when her mind was messed with and it had clearly been messed with.

'There is some explaining to do on my part.' He said and so he sat, sighing just loud enough for her to hear, and amazingly accompanying the sigh was a feeling of annoyance and slight regret, straight into her mind, because of her empathy she was used to distinguishing different peoples emotions from her own and so it was blatantly obvious that she was feeling Sesshoumarus' emotions, except this time she didn't have a choice.

'Why can I feel your emotions in my head?' She asked, his face betrayed nothing but she felt slight surprise inside her coming through the door. If she wasn't so worried he would kill her because she could feel his emotions, she might have found this fun.

'Remember when I sent my yokai into you so you could finish the healing?' She nodded wondering where this was going, 'Because you had already sent your miko aura into me we had shared our auras, in demon world that forms a bond, normally it cant happen with a human as not many can control their aura, but even amongst the few who could, not many have survived the forging of a bond, I believe it is because you have a strong aura that you survived.' Of course he would survive no matter what; she thought almost amused.

'What is a bond?' She interrupted, she felt his slight annoyance before he squashed it, she smiled apologetically, he sighed in response.

'A bond is a two way channel; those that have shared auras' and have survived form one.

This bond allows both beings to experience the others emotions and if the bond is nurtured then the two can speak to each other through it, see through the others eyes, feel what the other touches, experience their emotions and if it is truly made strong then they can read each others mind, see past memories and listen in on the others thoughts with or without permission.' She was speechless; she had one of these with Sesshoumaru?

At first she was frightened but then she remembered that he said this would only happen if it was nurtured. She nearly felt relief before she really thought through what he just said, what would it be like? She wondered. What would it be like to live the life of another? As she considered it she realised something…she wanted this, she would like to see through his eyes and experience what it is like to live his life, to not have to be the shikon miko who has to travel the lands in search of jewel shards. If she ever needed an escape she could see through his eyes, experience life from his point of view. But would he agree? Would he mind sharing his feelings, his sights, smells, touches with another, for some reason she didn't think so. Crushed she wondered whether she could ask him to nurture the bond.

Little did she know that Sesshoumaru was also seriously considering nurturing the bond, he had already experienced more emotions from her than he had felt in…a long time. He had woken up as soon as she moved in his lap, he had watched as she sleepily looked at her surroundings, then she suddenly looked up, she had regarded him so raptly that he wondered whether she knew he was awake, but then she had gotten up and he believed she would leave, but she didn't; she had stood and stretched and only then did she fully take in her surroundings.

The peace and happiness she had experienced then had washed through him like a wave, it was such a wonderful feeling he had never wanted it to end and then she had looked at him and felt what only could be described as awe, not fearful/frightened or scared awe, no a simple feeling not marred by other emotions. Only then had she seen he was watching, the pretty blush that had swept over her face very nearly made him smile, then she jutted out her chin and stared at him defiantly as if to say

'What right do you have to say where I look?' He had stared her down, very nearly tempted to laugh when she huffed and sat on the ground, but suddenly her gaze turned inward and he realised she had finally noticed his emotions, so squashing any feeling of happiness or light heartedness watching her had brought on he replaced it with cool awareness, he felt her probing the door in their minds at first carefully but then with increasing alarm. Sighing he rose and crouched a few feet in front of her, he had called out to her and her gaze had snapped to his, her alarm still leaking into his head whilst her eyes held a question.

As he explained it to her he realised the opportunity this could represent, often before his half brother smelt he was close he would hear the happy chatter amongst the group and he would wonder briefly what it felt to be a part of a group like that, not one made up of servants or idolising young girls, though he had to admit he had become quite fond of Rin. He could experience Kagome's life if he ever felt his was losing its lustre. He also knew that no matter what he did he would always know where Kagome was, no matter how far she moved from him, and he would always experience her emotions, even if he did not wish it. So if he was getting the downsides then why not the perks as well?

And that had led him to seriously considering asking Kagome to nurture their bond, but would she agree? Would she be willing to share her mind with a demon lord who had tried to kill her and her companions many times before? And was he absolutely certain he wanted to share his mind with a human, and not just any human but a powerful miko? Well risks never taken were joys never known.

'Miko, would you be willing to nurture our bond?'

She looked up in surprise, had he seriously said what she thought he had said? Happiness swept through her, but she quenched it, maybe he was just curious? She hated to get her hopes up and then have them needlessly crushed, plus this was Sesshoumaru they were talking about, he was probably playing with her.

'Yes I would, but are you?'

'Yes.' He answered without hesitation and this time her happiness was joined with his contained joy. It felt amazing a true feeling they were both sharing.

'How do we nurture it?'

'With some it comes easier than with others, but considering how strong we are we should get the basics such as seeing through the others eyes in around an hour.' She beamed happily at him; clapping her hands together she leaned forward,

'Right lets get started!' She felt slight amusement coming from him, although on the outside his face was as stoic as ever, and she realized she was acting like the overly eager teenager she was. Grinning she stuck her tongue out at him, briefly forgetting who he was. A brief feeling of surprise washed through her before his amusement doubled, she smiled at him before motioning for him to explain. His emotions once again turned serious.

'You can feel the door in our minds?' He asked already knowing the answer, at her nod he continued, 'Instead of standing on the outside of it try to walk through it, you should encounter a barrier, that is the barrier of my mind, the challenge is finding a way through it, once you have you should see through my eyes, when I make it I shall see through yours, with each time we walk through the door, it will become easier until we shall be able to do it without thinking. That is how we make it stronger, with time we shall be able to not only see but also smell, touch and taste what the other does.'

'Okay, let's give it a try.' Her face was dead serious he noted as her gaze turned inward so did his. Reaching their doors Sesshoumaru examined the barrier it was like her barrier was made of pure whiteness harder than any wall and for Kagome his barrier was like a net of blue lightning, constantly moving but not burning to the touch.

Kagome reached out and tried to grab some of the lightning but it dodged through her fingers and repelled her hand. She then tried to walk through but the lightning held her back. Getting slightly irritated she tried to push a hand through but though the lightning bulged in slightly it still held her, she briefly thought she saw Sesshoumaru on the other side, imagining him she tried to reach him, pushing on the lighting it bulged more than before so she pictured each feature of his face, starting with his markings, then his long hair and finally his golden eyes which seemed to reach into her soul and read her like an open book, with this picture held firmly in place she pushed through the lightning and it opened for her with barely any resistance, containing her joy she walked through the door and found herself staring through Sesshoumarus' eyes and into her own, it was the weirdest thing she had ever seen.

Sesshoumaru felt her enter his mind and look through his eyes, he was starting to get frustrated he had tried to break through the wall every way possible but it still held him back as strong as before.

_**--Stop trying to force your way into my mind, imagine me on the other side and then once you have my picture firmly in your mind walk through, that's how I did it--.**_

Hn, he was being too forceful? Fine.

_**Hn. Thank you.**_

_**--No problem.--**_

He felt her smile in his mind, he was right, they were powerful. Not many reached the mind talking stage nearly as fast as they did. Imagining Kagome he felt her silent reassurance in his mind, he pictured everything from her long ebony tresses to her beautiful hazel eyes which almost seemed to turn blue if looked at from a different angle, he imagined how each and every emotion she felt was brought to the surface of those eyes, then with that picture firmly in place he walked past her barrier as if it was mist and entered her mind.

_**--Welcome to the mind of me. --**_

A happy voice sang out as he looked through her eyes at himself, it was an almost disturbing thing to do.

_**It is quite strange to see me through your eyes. Your human eyesight is weak. **_

He was only playing with her and she knew it.

_**--I know, its weird to see myself, your eyesight is awesome! I wish I could see like this all the time!--**_

She felt really happy and he couldn't help inwardly smirking at her childishness, so much like Rin.

**Awesome?**

_**--It means…um…that it is really really good.--**_

_**Hn.**_

A giggle floated through his mind, turning he walked through the door and back into his mind, it was no struggle getting back as this is where he belonged. But he could feel Kagome remain in his mind.

_**Are you to have permanent residence here?**_

He asked, trying to be cold and emotionless even though she could feel he was anything but, in fact he was almost happy with this new ability he had.

_**--No, I was just enjoying looking through your eyes, even if I am not the most beautiful sight.-- **_Another giggle resounded through his mind before he felt her leave.

As her gaze cleared a bright grin surfaced across her face, lighting her eyes hypnotically, he could feel her happiness washing through him, and finally he came to the conclusion that this was the right decision, having debated it with himself for most of the night.

'Umm, I was wondering…do you know which direction Inuyashas' camp is? You see I am actually horribly lost…' She wasn't looking at him but at the ground, he could feel her anxiousness set in, of course he knew where it was, he could smell the hanyou five miles away.

_**Of course. I shall take you there.**_

He sent this message through the door and to her, if they were to speak to each other from across distances then he had to teach her how to do this. He had some experience with talking to his beast, so he already understood the concept, it looked like this time he was to teach her. He felt vague satisfaction at the notion. He heard her gasp and refocused on her.

'How did you do that?' Her eyes were shining with awe and he felt bright curiosity come through.

_**Send your message through the door as if you were talking to me in another room.**_

Her face scrunched up and he heard a very faint voice in the back of his mind.

_**--Louder.--**_

_**--CAN YOU HEAR ME!--**_

He winced.

_**Softer.**_

_**--Sorry.--**_

Her voice was still a bit louder than necessary, but now it was bearable.

_**Do not worry. I shall take you to your camp.**_

_**--Really! Thank you so much!--**_

Then to both their surprise she hugged him.

_**--Thanks for keeping me company last night and letting me use your pelt--.**_

She blushed slightly and he felt her embarrassment.

_**Yes you were worthy entertainment.**_

She gasped and stared daggers in his direction, he ignored her and started to walk in the direction of the hanyou's camp. At Kagome's slight gasp he looked at her out of the corner of his eye, a feeling of revelation drifting to him from her,

'What now miko.' He sounded bored but he knew she could sense his slight interest.

'I heard you laugh last night…' She sounded as if this fact would stop the world from ending, shaking his head slightly he didn't deign her with an answer.

'You should laugh more often, it's nice.' She said walking next to him. She felt his brief irritation.

'If I did I would be thought of as weak in demon society, already you do not fear me because you have seen and felt my emotions.'

'In case you didn't notice I never feared you in the first place.' Her words surprised him and thinking back he realised she was right.

'Why not?'

'Because I figured I was beneath your notice and unless I did anything stupid, like pull out the Tetsaiga, you never tried to kill me.' Again she was right, how did she understand others so thoroughly?

_**You are quite an interesting creature.**_

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and saw her blushing, she moved to walk beside him, brushing off dirt from the material she called clothes and he called non existent.

_**--Thanks.--**_

_**Why do you wear such indecent clothing?**_

_**--Because they are the only clothes I do not mind ruining, all my other clothes back home are too nice to get destroyed walking around Feudal Japan.--**_

_**Feudal Japan?**_

Immediately he felt her trepidation fill his mind, why did those two words worry her so?

_**Tell me. **_

He demanded when he sensed her hesitation.

_**--Well you see…I am from the future, about 500 years to be exact, and in the future we call this time…Feudal Japan.--**_

At first doubt filled him but then he sensed the honesty of her statement and her emotions only proved that she believed she was telling the truth, it didn't necessarily mean it was the truth, just that she believed it to be so. But if he thought about it, her coming from the future would explain a lot.

_**I see.**_

_**--I wonder if the bond works when I go back to my time.--**_

She seemed to wonder almost absently. The thought intrigued him. He knew bonds were strong but could they break the barrier of time?

_**I do not know. It would be interesting to see your era.**_

_**--I could always take you with me if you want, I mean it lets Inuyasha through, why not you?--**_

Instant annoyance washed through him. The thought of that _hanyou_ having done something as powerful as moving through time before he had made him very angry, but he pushed the feeling away. Instead he focused on the girl stepping lightly beside him, when had such a trust been formed between the two of them? She did not fear him and she understood him better than anyone else he knew, and he felt only respect and curiosity for her abilities and their bond.

_**Hn, I would like that.**_

Her happiness again came through as they walked back to Inuyasha and her friends.


	4. Chapter 4: Kagome

Chapter Four: Kagome

Chapter Four: Kagome

Kagome smiled as she walked into the clearing the fire light was coming from, finally she had found them! Sesshoumaru had left her 3 miles away, saying that was 'the extent of the hanyou's weak scenting ability'. Thinking about it, it was kind of scary that Sesshoumaru knew how far he had to be before Inuyasha could smell him, no wonder they could never see him coming until he was right in front of them.

Noticing the lack of joyous yelling (as was her usual welcome), Kagome looked into her friends' fire lit faces. She immediately noticed the expressions of shock and guilt…she knew that look. Finally paying attention to the slight tug in her soul, she turned slowly and felt a stab shoot through her when she finally noticed the red and white clad figure sitting in the shadows off to her left. The figure slowly stood and Kikyo walked into the light, her face grim and her eyes shining with a kind of malicious joy. The stab once more shot through Kagome when Inuyasha dropped down behind her incarnation.

'Where the fuck you been wench!' He shouted; his face a mixture of guilt and anger. She struggled to blink back tears; she had been stumbling around blind last night, talking to dangerous Taiyoukai and nearly freezing to death, and meanwhile Inuyasha was inviting Kikyo to their group? She felt her anger flare,

'Where have I been? Where have I been! I have been stumbling around blind for the past day and night, trying to find my so called friends and guess what!? When I do find them I find someone who has tried to kill not only me but you as well, Inuyasha, more than once! So that is where I have been Inuyasha, for all you care!' Crossing her arms she stamped a foot angrily, 'And what is Kikyo doing here! No let me guess! You've invited her to join our group!' When no response was forth coming she huffed angrily and stomped past the hanyou. She ignored his very guilty look and the fact his ears were flat against his head in agitation, for once not caring how he was feeling.

Dropping to the ground she wrapped her arms around her knees and stared abjectly into the flames, holding back her tears with an iron will, she didn't care when Miroku and Sango sat opposite her and watched her sadly, she ignored Inuyasha and Kikyo when they sat off to her side, talking quietly to each other. All she could focus on was the pain in her heart. Sure she and Inuyasha often didn't get along, but she thought he would have at least had the decency to not bring Kikyo here, he knew how Kagome hated to be compared to the woman and now he was making Kikyo part of their group…

Sighing she lowered her head to her knees and contemplated life, was it really worth it at the moment to be with the group? Should she go back to her time, maybe for good? The thought sent another stab of pain through her when she was startled out of her thoughts be a deep, unemotional voice,

**Miko, you are unhurt yet you feel pain. Why?**

The voice washed through her and with it came a sense of calm, his controlled emotions taming her painful ones.

--Sorry Sesshoumaru…Inuyasha has invited my incarnation into our group. She has tried to kill me…more than once and is planning to take Inuyasha to hell with her.--

She sighed again,

--My pain isn't physical but mental.--

She felt a sob rise in her throat but viciously fought it down, she would not cry over Inuyasha! Not again, never again.

**She is the un-dead one who pinned him to the Goshinboku. Am I correct?** His voice seemed mildly curious but to her surprise his emotions betrayed nothing. How could he do that? Had he somehow found a way to mask his emotions? Was that even possible?

--Yes, that's her. Kikyo.--

The more she talked to him the more she found her emotions calming, the pain in her chest slowly retreating until it was at a bearable level.

**If he wishes to mate the dead one then he is clearly even lower than I thought. He does not deserve your acknowledgment let alone your pain. He does not deserve any acknowledgement from any one.**

Kagome couldn't believe it, when he said that; Sesshoumaru sounded so dismissive and dare she say…snotty, that she couldn't help it, she suddenly burst into mental and physical laughter, she then realised that laughing was so much better than crying and soon she was bent over, sides heaving and tears streaming down her face. She could hear the worried mutterings of her friends around her but just couldn't bring herself to care.

As her laughter finally died off she wiped her eyes and glanced around the clearing, smiling widely at everyone (even Kikyo), feeling decidedly happier, and to think it was Sesshoumaru who set it all off in the first place.

--Thank you Sesshoumaru.--

Again she felt a dismissive wave wash through her from him,

**It was not for you Miko, I have my own pain, I do not need yours as well**.

She ignored his comment and was still smiling as she stood up and walked over to her bag, pulling out her sleeping bag and crawling in without changing into her pyjamas, she was exhausted and she still couldn't believe she had managed to get lost, again, when she was only three miles from her friends. It was only later, before she finally fell asleep that she realised what his comment about her pain meant. If he could feel her pain then...

Oh shit…

--

Walking behind her friends Kagome tried to ignore the two people leading the group and talking together quietly. She had been woken by a loud hanyou this morning, just like usual, as if he hadn't invited one of her worst enemies into the group. She still remembered how she had been so tired that she had woken completely forgetting about her little adventure the previous day and night, that was until she felt his emotions in the back of her mind, like an ever present hum just under the surface. But this hum was more calming than annoying and so instead of yelling at Inuyasha like she was prone to do in the mornings, she simply got out of bed and started to make breakfast.

His confused face had been priceless. She smiled slightly at the memory, clearly he had expected the sitting of a life time, and she probably should have given it, but it is rather hard to be angry with someone when you have someone else's calm washing over you like waves in the sea, smothering the anger.

Her smile disappeared though when she remembered what she had realised the night before. Sesshoumaru could feel her pain. That was bad, very bad. It meant that if she was hurt then so would he be, though she knew the bond wasn't strong enough to kill him if she died, the pain of their two auras ripping apart again would be much worse than losing his arm, it was like comparing a tooth pick to an oak tree.

She sighed again, she was going to be a weakness for him, she was always the weakness and she was getting tired of it. She felt sadness start to kick in again, why was she so weak, if she died he would be vulnerable for at least an hour, and Naraku wouldn't let a chance like that pass him by. She found herself on the verge of tears, her sadness having blown up into full depth depression. Someone like Kikyo should have healed him she thought to herself snidely, that way even if a bond had been created then he wouldn't have to worry about pain, she doubted the golem could even feel pain, and Kikyo could defend herself well enough.

Suddenly the emotions in the back of her head she had been previously ignoring; grew. They washed over her once again and she realised he must be somehow projecting them to her, probably didn't feel like talking to the pathetic human; she thought to herself, trying to hold onto her feelings, but they were washed away easily beneath his and with his calm came a realisation that was so obvious she felt like slapping herself:

If she didn't wish to be his weakness then just get stronger!

Happiness returned and his emotions slowly withdrew, she felt a slight surprise and something else from him before once again he was calm and collected. She was really going to have to ask him how he hid his emotions from her, not that he would probably tell her. She smiled again and skipped slightly to return to her place at the back of her group, she noticed Miroku eyeing her and smiled brightly at him, ignoring his perplexed look.

Glancing around she noticed the light beginning to fade from the sky, she hadn't realised how late it was! Running to catch up to her friends she told them to help her look for a clearing so they could rest for the evening. And that is when the first of their problems with Kikyo arose.

'Why don't we keep walking reincarnation? We could make more time and catch Naraku faster, and I am not tired.' Kikyo smirked at her slightly, causing a dull rage to smoulder in Kagome.

'Yeah Kagome. What the fuck? We always stop before the lights even left the sky, we could make alota time if you hurried you human ass up!' Inuyasha grumbled to her over his shoulder.

'In case you hadn't noticed Inuyasha, Kikyo is dead, she does not get tired. As for the rest of us normal humans, we get tired and we normally get tired fast, but we always put off resting for you, you ignorant bastard!' This time Inuyasha did stop, he turned to glare at her and the others, but seeing the dangerous glint in her eye he forwent his usual trademark insults, instead huffing he turned and a quiet, 'whatever wench' was heard, which Kagome disdainfully ignored.

It wasn't long before an adequate clearing turned up and despite the annoyed mumbling and snide remarks from the Inu-Kik couple, the others set up camp, relieved sighs escaping their tired throats.

Making a quick dinner Kagome was soon lying in her sleeping bag, regarding the stars sparkling through the trees above her. Like usual she had the hum of Sesshoumaru's emotions in the back of her mind, and once again she considered looking through his eyes, and once again she stopped herself, feeling it a very personal thing to do.

At the time, when she had been with Sesshoumaru, looking through his eyes had been an exciting new prospect filled with tons of possibilities, in her excitement she completely forgot who Sesshoumaru was, and the fact he has tried to kill her before. But once they set out, her walking by his side, as he led her back to her friends, who she was with had finally dawned on her, and despite the fact he had kept her warm and most likely alive the night before; she couldn't help being worried and slightly confused. And now that she couldn't see him and only feel him, well looking through his eyes had suddenly lost its dazzling shine and had become quite a daunting prospect.

Turning onto her side she considered the conundrum that was Sesshoumaru. When she had woken that morning he had been friendly and surprisingly open, but after they had travelled for a while he had returned to his arrogant, cold self, and Kagome was left wondering if she had imagined him being nice at all.

It also didn't help that as much as she couldn't control her emotions he held a very tight reign on his. She had noticed pretty fast that whilst she felt everything to the extremes (e.g. her turning sadness into depression within a few short minutes), everything he felt was almost second hand. She knew that it wasn't because of the bond that it felt that way, no, he literally took each of the emotions he felt, examined the reasons behind feeling them, and once locating the source and reason, dismissing them in favour for his cold haughty manor. It was a simple yet effective method of stopping anything from surprising him and being ready for anything.

Laying her head on her arm Kagome let herself slowly drift into sleep. As her mind wandered in that stage before sleep, she felt his emotions within her, washing over her like a soothing wind. She smiled slightly even as she realised how much she had come to depend on him, at least in the emotional sense. She knew she could rely on his emotions to calm hers, to stop her from reacting too rashly, and already she felt almost…protected. Twice now he had helped her emotionally, the first time with Kikyo he had talked her through her sadness and the second time he had sent his own emotions to her, smothering her depression long enough for her to climb out of the hole she had dug herself into, and to come up with a solution. He helped her, and for that she was grateful.

It was a week later that the group found themselves once again standing and awaiting the inevitable battle, tensions were high and not only because of the upcoming fight. No. Kikyo had been making all of their lives hell (except Inuyashas', ironic I know). She was constantly complaining about their human weaknesses, like needing to eat and rest. She was also always attached to Inuyasha, only leaving when she need to find some souls to consume. By the time Naraku had deigned to arrive, the entire group (except Inuyasha) was ready to throttle her and screw the consequences.

As Kagome stared up at the billowing white figure standing atop a hill her anger grew, this…thing had done so much to her friends, ruining their lives all in his sick twisted plot. Even as she thought this, a smaller figure stepped out from behind Naraku, the boy was easily recognizable and Kagome felt brief hatred for what the hanyou had done, but it was all too brief. As she had once said, it was not in her nature to hate, she sometimes wondered if Kikyo had taken all the possible hate out of her when she took some of her soul, it sort of made sense. Even now as she looked at the being that had been playing with all their lives, and all she could feel was insurmountable rage.

'So Naraku, finally decided to turn up, did ya?!' Inuyasha yelled at the figure, but for once Naraku did not do his usual gloating, all that returned Inuyasha's statement was an almost silent chuckle before the figure raised one hand and a wall of demons rose up behind him, almost as if out of no where.

Immediately knocking an arrow Kagome aimed into the mass and poured some of her spiritual energies into her arrow, the arrow gave off a faint light before Kagome let it loose into the hoard. Screams were heard as a swathe of demons turned to ash, noticing a similar swathe to her right she watched vaguely as Kikyo loaded another arrow, for once taking an active role in their battles against Naraku.

Loading and letting loose arrow after arrow into the seemingly unending hoard of demons Kagome found herself and the rest of her friends slowly being separated. Ignoring a fine sense of dread she saw an opening, the briefest of ones, but she took it, loading as much spiritual power into her arrow as possible she noticed distractedly that what was usually a bright pink light being emitted, was instead an almost light magenta light. Ignoring it she let loose the arrow into the opening, watching with satisfaction as the arrow skimmed past demons, turning them to ash before they knew what hit them, finally it struck with a dull thud into one of Naraku's many flying tentacles. Snarling he spun and cut off his own tentacle as it was purified, stopping the purification from reaching himself.

His eyes locked with hers across the distance, and despite the battle around them she could already see his mind working, piecing together strategy after strategy so he would always be as prepared as possible for what was to come. She could see as his mind clicked something together and then he was suddenly grinning at her, a cruel twist of the lips, and with an unheard chuckle he sent a tentacle flying not only at her, but another also at Kikyo.

She noticed, then, the location of her friends, Sango and Miroku off to her left, fighting as one, as if they had been fighting together their whole lives. Kikyo was to her right and there was about one hundred yards in between the two priestesses. Right in between her and Kikyo was Inuyasha. She watched as he noticed the two tentacles coming towards the two women, and she understood as his immediate reaction was to leap towards Kikyo.

She snapped her gaze to the flying tentacle speeding towards her heart, she tried to order her body to move but it seemed to be frozen, convinced this was the moment she was going to die she felt a flood of alarm wash through her, the feeling seemed to break her paralysis and she threw herself to the side, she heard the swish of air above her as the tentacle swept past, millimetres from hitting her. Twisting onto her back she grunted as she noticed the tentacle twist in midair and speed once again towards her. Dropping her bow and arrows that she had somehow held onto, she felt the alarm grow within her and realised belatedly that it was not her own, and with that realisation she remembered Sesshoumaru and the silent promise she had made herself. She would not be his weakness!

Reaching in front of her she sent up a silent prayer. She watched the appendage shoot towards her as if it was in slow motion, surprising really since it probably happened in a split second. As the tentacle appeared in front of her, Kagome stuck out her hands and wrapped them around the powerful appendage, keeping her arms as straight as possible. The force of the tentacle rushing at her slammed her along the ground, rocks and other sharp things ripping into her unprotected back. Grunting, Kagome refused to let go, hanging onto the tentacle she dug her fingernails as hard as she could into the disgusting surface, drawing blood, then bringing forth as much miko power as possible she sent it out through her hands and down into the tentacle, watching with satisfaction as it purified.

Naraku snarled and once again he cut off a piece of himself to stop the purification from reaching him. Surprisingly he made no inane comments as he was usually prone to do, and when she had touched the tentacle it had felt wrong, but not in the usual sense. Standing up Kagome absently dusted herself off, again his eyes were calculating, they brightened as he came up with another plan, she felt a tug in the air as he drew on his jewel shard enhanced yokai, and then a hundred tentacles burst out of him, completely hiding him from view as they rose threateningly into the air. Splitting apart they once again headed for her and the Inuyasha protected Kikyo.

'Kagome run!' Inuyasha managed to shout, she looked at him incredulously, there was no way she could out run those things! And she couldn't dive to the side again considering how many of them there were, her gaze dropped to the ground and there lying 15 feet away, where she had dropped them were her bow and arrows, but even as she saw them the tentacles reached them. Raising her eyes fearfully she saw Naraku smirking at her from behind the tentacles, he knew there was no where for her to escape to. And so in one last act of defiance she raised a hand and flipped him off, knowing that he wouldn't understand the gesture, his eyes widened and he glanced around, looking for some form of attack, his tentacles hesitating in mid air briefly.

That hesitation was all he needed and both Naraku's and Kagome's eyes widened as suddenly a white blur was in front of her, rushing to meet the tentacles that were supposed to kill her.

AN: I think I'm going to be a little mean and leave it here :D, sorry this took so long to write, I've been having mock exams lately and needed to study for them. But in between studying and all that jazz I managed to get this chappy out. Hope you enjoyed it.


	5. Chapter 5: Sesshoumaru

Chapter Four: Sesshoumaru

Chapter Five: Sesshoumaru

Sesshoumaru launched himself towards the miko. He knew before he had even left the ground that he would be too late, he was too far away. Growling low in his throat his eyes narrowed despite seeing Kagome raising a hand and with no apparent effect, raising the middle finger at the hanyou. But whilst nothing occurred because of the strange action (other than the feeling of victory and defiance coming from the miko) the hanyou paused, his eyes quickly assessing any possible attacks. That pause was all Sesshoumaru needed to get between the miko and Naraku.

He watched with no small satisfaction as the creatures eyes widened and Kagome's surprise washed away her previous emotions. But then Naraku's eyes narrowed and he sent a swarm of appendages flying at him. Surprisingly without making any remarks on Sesshoumarus' protecting the female, an eyebrow raised Sesshoumaru easily dodged and sliced off the offending things. Something was wrong. Naraku never dropped a chance for well placed mental and verbal barbs.

Landing by the mikos' side, he waited as she retrieved her fallen weapons. Once she was standing by his side he sent out his yokai, using it to examine Naraku's aura, he noted the similarity of appearance but there were differences in this aura, not that notable but enough to confirm his suspicions. As he looked at 'Naraku' he nearly got the urge to chuckle, how pathetic this creature was.

Turning his attention to the miko by his side he noted how she leaned slightly towards him and the way she stood next to him, as if she belonged there… Then he noticed her narrowed eyes and the confused apprehension she was feeling. He smirked; so she suspected something.

'It is an incarnation of Naraku.' He stated, watching out of the corner of his eye as hers widened further before her gaze snapped to his. 'It is made to look like him, yet it is not the hanyou.' One of those silences that occur for a short space in between fighting as the humans tried to re-catch their breath happened, he watched as Kagome used this time trying to plan what to do next (and wondering when Sesshoumaru arrived).

Something puzzled her and voicing aloud her suspicions she decided to wonder about bouncing ideas off THE Sesshoumaru later,

'But I feel the jewel shards on him, ALL of Narakus' shards. Would Naraku seriously give all of his jewel shards to an incarnation just to trick us?' The idea of Naraku trusting anyone, even an incarnation with his jewel shards was too foreign.

'Yes.' He replied. Sesshoumaru watched the newest incarnation closely, working out how much power it could have considering it had the jewel shards. Because whilst he didn't want the shards for himself, he knew that weaker beings would crave it's power, unable to reach that strength for themselves.

Suddenly the miko spun round, as if having realised something, a sense of urgency came from her even as she yelled to them (making him inwardly wince at her raised voice so close),

'Inuyasha! It's an incarnation! It only looks like him but it has all the jewel shards! He did it to trick us!'

Inuyasha's eyes widened as Sesshoumaru felt the urge to sigh, wondering briefly if keeping that knowledge to themselves could have won them the battle. This was why he did not share information on weakness and strength, even with possible comrades.

Kagome must have felt his annoyance as she turned to him and muttered a quiet 'sorry', as if that could make up for anything. He ignored her and turned his attention to the smirking being in front of them; finally it opened its mouth and out came the voice of something that was definitely not Naraku.

'So you finally figured it out?' Narrowing his eyes Sesshoumaru watched it, considering and discarding different strategies of attack and defence, within a minute he had all the advantages and disadvantages of the area they were in, possible weaknesses of their opponent, and the placement of all various allies. Returning his gaze to the thing that looked like Naraku it was obvious why it had not spoken before this. Whilst the body looked much like Naraku, the voice did not change, it was deep and whilst just as malicious most definitely not Naraku's.

All eyes turned to the incarnation with obvious apprehension. Then, as they all watched, his form began to collapse within itself, folding and twisting over and over until finally the roiling mass of flesh stopped moving and began to reform. A body pulling itself out of the mass until before them stood a figure covered in a long, black and red splashed haori and hakama. Out of the back of his haori along the things spine, came long sharp bones, the persons hair was midnight black streaked with red, pulled back into a ponytail. The being smirked at all of them, his power twisting around them darkly, like a black pulse beating against their skin.

'I am the shape-shifter Kizaru, and by the end of today, you shall have all fallen.' The energy beating against them increased in speed and the shape-shifter looked mockingly down on all of them. Sesshoumaru couldn't believe it. He felt like laughing, although he never would. This thing thought that simply because of the jewel it would win. He raised his nose and looked down on the man-being, his power would always be greater than this things, as would Kagome's. He would not bond with someone of weak calibre. Never mind the circumstances. Making sure he captured the shifters eyes, he smirked and dismissively turned his head to look at Kagome. His smirk widened when he noticed the humour in his eyes even as the shifter gasped in outrage.

'I don't give a fuck who you are, just give over the damn jewel shards and I wont hurt you too bad!' Turning his gaze from the priestess he almost smiled when he felt relief flow from her. So she found his gaze unnerving? Making a mental note of that fact he turned his attention to his hanyou brother. The idiot was waving the Tetsaiga around as if trying to hit a flying insect, he inwardly sighed, what a waste. Then looking at the enemy he smirked when he noticed the displeased frown across the shape-shifters face, maybe the hanyou wasn't so useless after all. He was almost tempted to let the two weaklings fight, but all too soon he remembered that the shifter had attacked Kagome and that was not acceptable. The priestess seems to have assumed that his protection he gave would only last the night of the eclipse, she was mistaken. He did not give his protection lightly, and when he did they were safe as long as he deemed it necessary. Glancing down as Kagome knocked an arrow and filled it with magenta light, his smirk widened with the knowledge that, for now, at least, the priestess was his.

Shifting his attention back to the surroundings (his attention wandered all too easily around the miko), he noticed the hanyou throwing verbal insults and the frown marring the shifters features was deepening every second. With no less prompting he withdrew Tokijin, and with one last glance at the miko, he launched himself at his enemy. With natural speed he was directly above the shifter and swinging the sword on Kizaru's unprotected head. His eyes widened in surprise when the spines on the shifters back extended and curved to stop his blade. The force of the blow and the touching of their opposing yokai caused a flash of dark light and an explosion, throwing him back. Twisting in the air, Sesshoumaru landed easily on his feet, eyeing his opponent and ignoring the furious chatter of his brother in the background.

Launching himself once again Sesshoumaru began a quick succession of attacks. Lunging, parrying and dodging each blow the shifter returned. A familiar sound echoed around him, pushing off the ground Sesshoumaru just got out of the way as the Wind Scar hurtled past him to slam directly into Kizaru. He sent a glare towards his smirking brother as the wind cleared and a purple barrier encased shifter appeared. Kizaru smirked at them, loving all of their shocked faces (except for Sesshoumaru and Kagome, who simply glared).

Leaping further back to land next to his miko he watched as the un-dead one sent arrow after arrow launched towards the shape-shifter, the pink enshrouded projectile doing little to no damage to the barrier. Kagome launched a few of her own and he couldn't help but smirk at her huff of annoyance and the brief anger that washed through him from her. Laying his returned left hand on her shoulder he leaned forward to whisper in her ear, absently noticing the rosy blush tingeing her cheeks. At her nod they turned to watch his brother attack Kizaru, both waiting for an opportunity to attack and only absently noticing the lack of a demon hoarde, it apparently having been destroyed in the cross-fire.

Raising Tokijin he watched from the corner of his eye as Kagome raised her bow and loaded her arrow with Miko power, some of it reaching out to brush against his yokai. Her arrow became so full of spiritual power that the magenta became an almost pitch black/blood red. The evil in Tokijin started to fight against his hold, he absently tamed the sword, ignoring its slight bite to watch his brother retreating from Kizaru. The incarnation turned to watch all of them, the smile on his face growing. Clearly he was going to let them attack first, another difference to his creator as Naraku would never let them attack first and possibly pull off a surprise attack or group together against him, his creator would always push home an advantage or have a back plan of some point.

Sesshoumaru smirked.

His eyes turned to Kagome as she pushed even more power into her arrow until it could hardly be seen through the glowing light surrounding it, raising Tokijin he allowed his yokai to fill the sword until his own power was showing itself in the form of lighting bolts dancing across the naked blade. His and Kagome's timing would have to be perfect, his eyes narrowed as he smiled, he demanded nothing less.

He felt his power shifting beneath the surface of the blade, his eyes watched his target as his power built up, him and Kagome were standing a ways off from the others and the shape-shifter had not yet noticed the rise in power. An amateur mistake. With a mental twist he pulled the first gate to his power open, saying calmly two words to act as the trigger,

'Dragon Strike.'

His yokai rushed through and out of him, crackling around his blade, he felt Kagome react, releasing the arrow at the exact moment his power flew out of him in the form of a lightning dragon. As her powerful arrow merged with his dragon he felt it, for a split second, they were one, they felt each others power as their own, they breath and heart beats merged and synchronised until it became a steady pulse directing both their powers. Kagome spiritual power fell from the air and rose into a blood read dragon, twisting around his own. With a roar both powers crashed into the stunned shifter, through the light they could see his eyes widen and his mouth open in a drowned out scream.

He never stood a chance.

Then the moment was over. They were their own again. Sesshoumaru turned to the slack jawed miko, she was staring up at him. They were both ignoring the after effects of their attack, as they had both felt the shifter obliterate under their combined attack. He could see his own wide-eyed surprise reflected in her gaze. Her mouth worked as if she was trying to form words but couldn't quite choose which ones were accurate enough. But everything was summed up accurately enough in the next second, by his loud mouthed brother.

'What the Fuck was That?!'

--

AN: one more chapter. I'm sorry but these chapters are just going to keep coming at irregular intervals. I'm doing some other stories on under the same penname. I'll probably put this on hold for a little while but figured one more chapter couldn't hurt. Anyway, please rate and review. If I get enough I may put the others on hold (yes I am shamelessly asking for more reviews :D). Hope you enjoyed.

Oh and thanks to everyone who has already reviewed, you are all great and I truly appreciate the support.

5


	6. Chapter 6: Kagome

Chapter Six:

Kagome moved around the clearing with practiced ease, handing out ramen to everyone and ignoring the suspicious glare from one ticked off hanyou. After their combined attack they had quite the bit of explaining to do (actually Kagome had quite a bit of explaining to do, apparently this Sesshoumaru 'doesn't explain his motives to anyone, let alone irrelevant _hanyou_'). So she had explained, spreading a web of half truths. She would feel guilty about doing it too, if she didn't know Inuyasha would try to kill Sesshoumaru (again) if he found out about the bond. It was hard enough getting him to believe the tale as it was.

_Flashback:_

'_Like I said Inuyasha, I have no idea what happened! Sesshoumaru thought if we combined our attacks we could overcome the barrier and kill him in one blow! I don't know why my spiritual powers took on the form of his attack!' Throwing her hands in the air, Kagome stomped her foot and glared at the irate hanyou who was currently brandishing his sword in Sesshoumaru's direction._

'_Like Fuck I'm supposed to b'lieve that Kagome! There is __no fucking way__ your attacks just decided,' here is voice went high pitched as he faked her tone, 'hey I know, I'll go and change to the dragon strike because I'm__ fucking bored__!' His voice changed back to his normal tone as he waved his sword around, emphasising his point. Kikyo, who was currently hanging all over the hanyou, gave a malicious smile to Kagome._

'_Inu is right, reincarnation. Attacks cannot simply combine. And might I ask why your spiritual power has changed colour, I have never heard of that happening before.' She sent a sickly sweet smile to Inuyasha who grinned down at her, puffing up his chest in pride at being told he was right (for once). Sesshoumaru deemed this the perfect time to add his own barb,_

'_Inu? How perfect. After all, Inuyasha, you __are__ little more than a bastard mongrel.' Sesshoumaru smirked as his brother let out a growl and would have leaped at him if Kagome wasn't between them and Kikyo hanging onto him._

'_What'd you say you fucking asshole? I'd kill you if I didn't know it'd be a waste of my time!' He smirked as Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed. Kagome placed a calming hand on his arm, sending out controlled emotions to him. She could feel his urge to kill washing through her and while he had the ability to handle it, it was a new feeling for her and she didn't know quite how to deal with it. She missed the slack-jawed stares her friends sent her when the red receded from his eyes with her touch and she didn't loose the offending appendage. Miroku stepped forward, wary eyes watching Sesshoumaru and with his hands held together in an almost-prayer like pose._

'_Very well, friends. If we could return to the topic at hand?' When they all turned to look at him he looked Inuyasha and Kikyo in the eyes. 'Perhaps if you let them explain themselves without interrupting we could figure out this conundrum?' At his quiet yet accusing tone Inuyasha's ears lay flat against his head and he spun round leaving a glaring Kikyo. He folded his arms and said gruffly over his shoulder,_

'_Fine, hurry the fuck up and tell us. Just don't keep me waiting, don't want to waste time we could be using to find jewel shards.' Kagome sighed and nodded. Stepping forward she clutched her hands in front of her and looked to her silent friends, their anxious gazes pushing her on._

'_I don't quite know what happened,' she continued, ignoring Inuyasha's snort, 'but I do know that I wanted my attack to be stronger. I decided to shoot my arrow at the same time as Sesshoumaru's Dragon Strike in the hopes they could work together, like Inuyasha's Wind Scar and my arrow have done before. But something was different this time, for some reason my light changed to this colour and when I prayed that our attacks work together, well, the light fell from my arrow…and…you saw what happened next…I don't get it. Why did it do that? Do you guys have any kind of idea?'_

_The others looked at her before silently shaking their heads, but it seemed that they believed her. She breathed a deep sigh of relief; she could feel Sesshoumaru's amusement. He knew she had sidestepped everything. She knew perfectly well that it was because of their bond that the attacks had fused; it was also why the colour of her spiritual power had changed. Her friends trusted her so blindly, even after they betrayed her and brought the un-dead one into the group without asking her permission on the matter._

_Inuyasha then turned and glared at Sesshoumaru. 'So what's your excuse?' At Sesshoumaru's raised eyebrow he continued on, his voice almost turning into a growl, 'Why the fuck'd you save Kagome?' His voice became patronizing whilst his eyes stayed hard and angry, 'Don't tell me you've fallen for a lowly human?!' Sesshoumaru smirked,_

'_And if I have?' A multitude of gasps surrounded them, his smirk widened as he felt the embarrassed anger coming from his miko. Shaking his head he stared his brother in the eye, 'Brother simply because you do not see the need to protect your allies and pack-mates does not mean I feel the same. This human-miko is strong, as you just witnessed, much stronger than that un-dead thing hanging from you. You see, where you fail I will always succeed younger brother, remember that.' Inuyasha's jaw hung open before he snapped it shut, his fangs clashing with a sharp click._

'_You fucker! You can't have Kagome, she's my shard detector, you can have her once I'm done with her, you hear me!' An indignant gasp was heard beside him before Kagome strode across to the hanyou, gripping his dog ear she pulled him down as he cringed, his eyes wide._

'_Listen here Inuyasha! I am my own person, not just a shard detector, not some wench from the future, definitely not Kikyo, but Kagome! You hear me. My name is Kagome, Ka-go-me! Get it right for kami's sake!' Some more gasps sounded from around them when she said she was from the future in front of Sesshoumaru, the 'enemy'. Kagome spun and glared at them, hands on hips, 'Oh come on, you guys! Do you really think he hasn't figured it out by now?! Unlike a certain hanyou I know, he is actually smart!' Whilst nothing showed it, Kagome could feel how amusing he found everything, she was tempted to turn her anger on him, but it would be incredibly hard to explain to her friends that she 'thought he was internally laughing at her, so she decided to yell at the Lord of the Western Lands.' No, it wouldn't go over well. So instead she stomped over to a nearby tree stump (tree cut courtesy of some demon or another during the fight), ignoring the sharp bits poking into her, she sat and propped her elbows on knees, chin in hands and stared into the distance, determined to ignore them all._

_End Flashback._

Whilst she was sitting off to the side they had come to an agreement, for a while at least, Sesshoumaru would travel with them, simply because Naraku was getting trickier and if they weren't careful some people were going to die. She hadn't been able to stay angry for very long, especially not with Sesshoumaru projecting his calm onto her (bastard), so she had eventually returned and helped to 'persuade' the hanyou to let Sesshoumaru travel with them (as if he had to be 'let' to do anything snorts). Actually, persuading Inuyasha had been fun, she recalled the memory fondly.

_Flashback:_

'_Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! Oh yeah, and sit! Now, can he come with us?'_

'_Uhhngh.'_

'_Good. Glad you see things my way.'_

_End Flashback._

She sighed happily, those were good times. Smiling slightly she watched as everyone ate their food (except Sesshoumaru, don't need to go into that, we all know what he feels about 'human food'). His calm and dare she say…content, was flowing over her and she could understand why, simply watching everyone was an enjoyable experience, even if her friends were talking in whispers between each other, obviously still wary of Sesshoumaru (as if he couldn't hear the whispers loud and clear anyway, she had proof of his hearing from that time he heard her mumble across a freaking clearing!).

**Your comrades are not as lowly as I had presumed them to be**

Kagome nearly choked on her ramen when his voice suddenly sounded in her head, they hadn't done this in a while. Getting over her shock she thought about what he said, her face breaking into a slight smile as she swallowed the noodle that had nearly killed her.

--Yeah, they are good people. Strong people. I don't know what you were going on about back in the clearing, Kikyo, despite how much I dislike her, has and always will be better than me--

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say because suddenly his anger washed through them and he was across the clearing, gripping her chin between two strong claws before she could blink, her friends were also up in a second, preparing to attack, he easily ignored them.

**You are not weak, miko. Do you think it was an easy feat? The one you accomplished against the shape-shifter? Having your spiritual energies form and work with my demonic ones is not something to be taken lightly; in all rights it should have been impossible. Remember that, and remember that this Kikyo (her name was said with such scorn that she wondered if he viewed her very name as a curse) could have never done what you did. Now stop with the self-pitying, it is what weaker ones then ourselves should spend their time with.** and suddenly his eyes lit slightly and a bit of amusement drifted through their bond, **Like Inuyasha**

Snorting she batted away his hand and grinned at him, completely unaware of her friends collectively holding their breaths and wondering whether she would get out of this alive…whatever this was, it looked like Kagome had been minding her own business when Sesshoumaru suddenly attacked her. Something was going on, that much Miroku and Sango knew.

--Fine. Maybe weak was a wrong word. How about…human?--

Sesshoumaru twisted around and sat so he was shoulder to shoulder with her, bringing a knee up he placed his left arm over it, both of them once again oblivious to the stares as Miroku and Sango pointed at his left arm and signed emphatically to each other. When did he get that back? How did they miss it in the first place?

**That is an adequate word. You are all too human.**

Pouting at him he could see and feel the amusement hidden within.

--Meanie. You are supposed to say that I am stronger than most humans, or some such meaningless phrase that will not change my mind but be sweet nevertheless for attempting it in the first place.--

This time he raised an eyebrow and looked her in the eyes.

**Since when did this Sesshoumaru do what he was supposed to do? And since when have I been** he shuddered ever so slightly, she could only feel it because they were shoulder to shoulder, **…sweet?! There are some things I will never be, that is one of them.**

Grinning up at him she said in her most innocent mental voice,

--But Sesshoumaru-sama, I thought it was really sweet when you came over here to convince me I'm strong. It's something Inuyasha would never do because it would make him look…nice--

By the end of her sentence she was batting her eyelashes and giggling internally. Sesshoumaru growled and rose in one fluid motion. Then looking over the clearing he glared at the other two humans in it, his half-brother and the un-dead wench having left a long time ago to go on a 'walk'. He could hear and feel the miko's stifled giggles and he absently wondered how red his eyes were, judging by the wide-eyed looks of the two in front of him, they were quite red.

'I am going to hunt.' He glared down at the miko by his feet, who was inconspicuously holding her sides as she shook with laughter, 'I have the undeniable urge to kill something.' Stalking off he growled louder when, despite the distance, her mental laughs continued to echo in his mind.

_Back at the clearing_

'Kagome-sama? Is something wrong? What just happened between you and Sesshoumaru-sama? Why did he-' Miroku stopped when Kagome held up a hand, a wide grin across her face.

'No, nothing's wrong. Sesshoumaru and I were just-' She was saved having to come up with excuses when Inuyasha carrying Kikyo bridle style landed in the middle of the clearing. Despite the save Kagome couldn't quite stifle the surge of jealousy, she always got lugged around on his back and Kikyo gets carried like some kind of fair maiden?! A wave of anger washed through her, not helped by Sesshoumaru's own anger, which was thankfully being replaced with his usual collective reserve. She could feel him moving nearer and realised he was coming to investigate the source of her anger/jealousy, no doubt he was going to find it extremely funny at her own expense.

True to form he was suddenly gliding into the clearing, stopping only to spare a glance at the inu/kik couple which were staring into each others eyes as if the answers to the universe could be found there (euch), Kagome felt the distinct urge to throw up, although once again jealousy reared it's ugly head. She sighed and put her head in her hands, when was she going to get over this?

As the light dimmed down Kagome stared longingly at her backpack and all her stuff which was being spread out to dry, once Inuyasha got out of the temporary coma she had put him into when 'persuading' him to 'let' Sesshoumaru join, he had thrown a major hissy fit and unable to hit something without incurring a bout of dizziness, he had grabbed the nearest object and thrown it as hard as he could. That nearest object happened to be her bag, and it had landed in a wonderful pile of demon hoard body parts, her bag had been soaked in…stuff…and all her things…she sighed, she was going to have to go home to get a change of all her clothes because there was no way in all of the seven hells that she was wearing something that had at one point been covered in demon guts and blood. Even her waterproof sleeping bag had not escaped the carnage, having changed from a wonderful deep blue to blue with large brown/black/red spots on it. Wrapping the thin blanket Sango had lent her around her shoulders, she foresaw a very long night ahead.

Just as she was preparing to attempt to go to sleep, despite the dropping temperature or the sounds of Inuyasha and Kikyo making out by one side of the clearing (you would think they could at least do that somewhere else, but noooo), when suddenly something large, fluffy and white was dropped into her lap. She knew this fluffy. Looking up she saw Sesshoumaru looking down on her.

--Why?--

He responded out loud, so that the others in the group wouldn't ask the same question,

'I did not save you miko, so that you could be incapacitated by the cold. Don't question me, go to sleep.' Grinning up at him she decided for the sake of keeping the fluffy, she wasn't going to comment on the fact that he was being sweet again.

Wrapping it around her she said quietly into the silence,

'Thank you Sesshoumaru, once again you have protected me from the cold.' He simply raised a brow and looked away, his bored expression doing nothing to dampen his slight comfort,

**Just do not make a habit of it, Miko**. Then he looked her in the eyes, and whilst on the outside he showed nothing, she got the mental image of him smirking, **If you find yourself too cold, Miko, even with my pelt, you are welcome back to my lap** She felt her skin heat all the way from her cheeks to her toes, did she just hear Sesshoumaru say what she thought he said. She glared at him as internal chuckling came to her and suddenly she knew how he felt earlier, this was revenge! Glaring harder at him she sighed when that proved ineffective, wrapping his pelt around her tightly she nuzzled into the fluff, unable and unwilling to stop the rush of contentedness that followed. This is where she was supposed to be, she could feel it in her very soul.

--

AN: Right, next one up! :D So, I know this is not as interesting as the last one (with the whole fight scene and all) but I'm hoping to show, at least a little, development in the sess/kag relationship. Then there is the whole inu/kik thing sighs it may have gotten a bit out of hand towards the end, but when ever I imagine them Kikyo can never seem to keep her hands off Inuyasha, so here is where it all leads to :D

Anyway thank you so much for all the reviews, I'm trying to reply to some of them, I really enjoy some of the comments people have made, so thank you, and I hope it's worth it.

p.s. read and review to your hearts content (or mine as the case may be :D)


	7. Chapter 7: Kagome x Sesshoumaru

**Chapter Seven: Revelations**

His eyes snapped open. Looking around the clearing he tried to find what had startled him from his light sleep. Neither sensing nor smelling anything of true danger he was about to get up and investigate (never put to rest instincts, it will only lead to death), when another flash occurred in his mind accompanying the sound of a low moan from his miko. As her feelings came through to him he realised she was dreaming, he hadn't dreamed in…centuries. As was common with dogs, they only felt comfortable enough to dream when feeling safe, this only accompanied being in the presence of someone they trusted…he hadn't trusted anyone that much since his father was alive.

Relaxing into his subconscious he walked through the barrier into Kagome's mind, hoping to capture a glimpse of her dream, having forgotten what they were like years ago.

The first thing he felt was her fear. It washed through him like a wave, pushing all other feelings to the back of their minds. The second thing he noticed was the smell, it was vaguely familiar but warped just beyond recognition by her dream state.

_Green, covering everything. Pain. Darkness. Suffocating. Burns everywhere._

Vague feelings came through to him, he tried to push them away but they suffocated him, forcing their ways into his psyche. He realised belatedly that she was having a nightmare, and now he had trapped himself in it with her.

_Struggling to free themselves. Fighting. Pushing. Aching for air. Fire everywhere. Smoke. Haze. Green…acid._

With a start he realised what she was dreaming of. The first time he tried to kill her. It was with acid. She always played it off as being nothing, like they were…friends now. But how could she play off something that was obviously quite traumatizing?

_Light! Fighting through sludge. Breaking through…and seeing…an angel, framed by light, but this angel's eyes were framed in red. Face controlled, perfect, but dangerous. Then darkness, everywhere. All consuming._

The dream weakened and with a wrench he freed himself from her mind. Surprised to find himself sweating as if he had just worked for a solid 3 days and this was his first rest. All from a dream? Hearing another low moan he realised that Kagome was still trapped within the dream. But what had caused the dream? Surely it wasn't his presence, she had slept on him on the night of the eclipse! Shaking his head he stood and walked to the priestess, easily lifting her he placed her in his lap and once again rubbed circles through his pelt, her shivering ceased and the fear in his mind reduced to manageable level, almost non-existent.

He found himself pondering this turn of events. He knew she did not fear him any longer, if she ever truly did. Had she not said that she had met him soon after she joined with Inuyasha? When they were travelling back to her group she had told him many things, obviously trying to fill the silence he had intentionally created. One of which that she had met him soon after falling through the well, if her world was not as dangerous as this one, then would he not have appeared more dangerous simply for attempting to do her harm earlier on in her travels?

Deciding he would ask her when he awoke his mind drifted once more to the attack they had accomplished earlier. Internally grinning he remembered the power that had surged from them as their two powers joined, all the stronger for their completely opposite properties. Feeling her breathing lightly against him he shook his head at her slightly. She truly did not know what they had accomplished, when he had suggested they attack at the same time it was merely in the hopes that their two attacks would overwhelm the shifter, he never foresaw them joining together and in such a spectacular way. If there was one thing Sesshoumaru could appreciate; it was power, and by joining with the priestess he had gained a very strong power, although it hadn't been his intention at the time, in truth he had tried to regret the action. He wouldn't regret it now.

His eyes darkened as he remembered their 'argument' earlier that evening. The hanyou had done serious damage to his priestess's self-esteem. She couldn't see that she was already more powerful than Kikyo. For one, she had joined with a demon, not just any demon but a Taiyoukai of the Western Lands. She a priestess, bonded with a demon, and her the Shikon no Miko, supposedly the most powerful priestess in existence. He had thought it possible, at first, because her powers had been completely extinguished in his healing, but then their attacks joined! Another completely unbelievable act, should he have not been there then he would have never believed it. And she thought herself worthless? His eyes brightened and a smirk started to grow on his features, he would change her mind, he would prove to her she was not worthless, should she not realise that simply his talking to her, in any way, meant he recognised within her enough worth to allow her existence.

With an unheard sigh he glanced down at her, it would soon be dawn and he knew the hanyou planned to be leaving at day-break, the idiotic half-breed did not realise how much that one attack drained Kagome's physical strength, the exhaustion had finally caught up with her and if she awoke any earlier then in her own time she would not be able to go very far before collapsing. When he offered his protection he did not realise it would entail protecting her from nightmares and her own comrades. Looking around him at said companions he noticed the lack of hanyou and un-dead woman, they had disappeared soon after Kagome had fallen asleep, only having come back to camp to rub it in the miko's face that they were together again, it was pitiful, if he hadn't already; he would have disowned the half-breed for doing something so beneath the inu-yokai clan. Watching the sun's rays begin to lighten the horizon he prepared himself for the yelling match to come.

--

Blinking blearily around her the first things Kagome noticed was the conspicuous lack of yelling forcing her to face the dawn, the other thing she noticed was that her bed position had changed. In fact, this position felt…familiar. Her eyes snapping open she turned to look up, and sure enough, there was one Taiyoukai looking down at her, she was once again, in his lap. Deciding this fact was pretty unimportant (it had happened before), she proceeded to let out a huge yawn and stretch comfortably from her place in said Taiyoukai's lap. The fluffy wrapped around her ticked her neck with the movement and letting out a giggle she curled into it. Forgetting for a second that, this time, she was in a campsite with her companions. Two of which were eyeing her with mixed fascination, awe and dread, they wondered absently if she even realised whose lap she was in or if her poor sleep befuddled brain hadn't clued her into that fact and she was about to get the fright of her life. Their fears were put to rest however when she muttered a sleepy,

"Good-mornin' Sesshoumaru. How'd I end up in your lap again?"

Glancing at one another the two raised their brows and decided that reminding their temporary companion and permanent comrade that they were there might not prove beneficial in the long run, who knew what else they might learn? And what did Kagome mean by 'again'?

"Your nightmare woke this Sesshoumaru. Tell me miko, why do you pretend that the first time I tried to kill you was unimportant when you have nightmares about the encounter." His voice was low and controlled, the other two shivered at the sound of it, absently wondering how he knew what she was dreaming of, had she said his name in her sleep or something? How embarrassing!

Kagome looked up at him confused, her brows drawn together as she tried to remember the dream, her eyes widened and her lips parted as the memories came back to her,

"It is unimportant Sesshoumaru-" holding up a hand she forestalled the interruption, once again forgetting she was still in his lap, something that was pretty important to her two curious comrades, "something must have sparked the dream, occasionally something reminds me of one of my many near-death experiences, when that happens I dream about it…what stood out the most in the dream? Can you remember?" her comrades looked at each other. Why would he remember her dream?

His eyes raised to the sky and almost absently he started to twirl some of her hair around a finger, neither seemed to notice the action whilst the two humans 'spying' on them nearly choked on air, fighting not to make their presence known. Though technically they weren't hiding…just sitting there on the edge of the campsite.

"The colour and the smell. Those two were the parts of your dream that stood out most." Looking down at Kagome and where his finger was twirling a lock of her hair around itself he raised a brow at the petulant appendage, since when did his fingers get a mind of their own? Must have happened during the healing. Then his eyes sighted his pelt wrapped around Kagome and he frowned slightly. "I believe it was the smell of my pelt that sparked the dream Kagome. But why did you not dream the night of the eclipse, you were wrapped in my pelt on that occasion as well." Kagome seemed just as confused, they must have been truly lost within their thoughts not to notice the choking sounds coming from across the campsite when he said her name and revealed the fact that they had already spent a night together…alone. A finger raised and Kagome laid it against her lip, her classic 'thinking' pose.

"Well I was truly exhausted then, because of the healing, maybe I was more of in a coma then, rather than unconscious, so I didn't dream. But now I was simply tired after the attack and as such could dream…" At his nod she grinned and for the first time seemed to take in the height of the sun and lack of aforementioned yelling. "Why did I sleep in so late? Where is Inuyasha?" Turning so she was straddling Sesshoumaru she glared him in the eyes (which he found very amusing) and poked him in the chest, which was lacking his armour strangely enough. "Sesshoumaru, what did you do?"

Brow raised a smirk crossed his face, both oblivious to the position that Kagome was sitting in and her two companions turning purple across the clearing, fearing to breath in case they were caught out and missed any more startling revelations.

"I did nothing miko. Nothing too damaging anyway, the hanyou did not comprehend that after such a powerful attack you would be exhausted, it would be too much for your weak human body. He insisted that you wake up, I insisted, rather forcefully, that you do not. He decided that he would continue on without us as he wasn't going to 'waste time' waiting for you to wake up. It should be easy enough to catch up with him."

Glaring at him Kagome used her anger to wash away the sadness that her hanyou 'friend' had abandoned her to what he thought was his sadistic, homicidal brother. "I assume by too damaging you mean he was able to walk away." His smirk widened and his eyebrow raised further, the amusement washing into her growing with every second,

"I didn't say that miko, he should be walking by now, but he did have to crawl quite a bit." At his look and the feelings washing through her Kagome couldn't help it; she started to laugh. The image of Inuyasha crawling away, Kikyo lying next to him, clinging to him on the dirt floor was just too much. Leaning against Sesshoumaru she laughed until tears poured out her eyes, she vaguely remembered this happening when Kikyo first joined their group; her laughing because it was so much more fun than crying. An internal chuckle joined her laughter and she grinned at him, wiping her tears away.

"Thanks Sesshou-kun, but what about the others? I know Shippo stayed with Kaede but Sango and Miroku?..." For the first time she turned and examined the clearing, when her eyes landed on her two comrades who were pale as a sheet and had apparently gone into shock she hastily got off of Sesshoumaru, blushing for the first time as she realised what position she had been in and what it must have looked like to them.

Running her hand through her hair she gave a nervous laugh,

"Uh…hi guys. How long have you been there?" You could practically see her praying that it wasn't long. Her friends slowly regained their colour (and ability to breathe) and glanced between her and Sesshoumaru who was also standing. Miroku was the first to speak, willing to sacrifice himself for Sango, if the look the two in front of him were giving them were any indication to their fate,

"Since you awoke Kagome-sama." Hands folded together in his lap he put on his 'wise' face, hoping to distract them from their current 'death to all witnesses' frame of mind, and the glowing green he could see faintly outlining one of the two's hands. "It seems you have a bit of explaining to do Kagome." He tried to ignore the low growling coming from the left, trying to pass it off as part of his imagination.

Kagome looked between her friends her eyes wide and her breath coming a bit short. The funny thing is that she could hear the growling coming from Sesshoumaru and she wasn't oblivious to the green either, but the only thing she felt from him was amusement…which could only mean… spinning to face him she said angrily, her eyes blazing,

"You had known! You knew they were there and listening! Why didn't you warn me, now they're going to ask all sorts of questions we could have avoided!" he faced her and his amusement slowly disappeared to be replaced by his usual calm, collected front. Suddenly remembering who she was yelling at she backed away, her hands waving in front of her, he stalked after her his predatory instincts kicking in, and she could _feel_ them through her bond.

"Miko, it is about time they learnt of what happened. It has been weeks. It couldn't be explained either, why you had to sleep in this Sesshoumaru's lap. Every time I left, the dream would come back Miko. Of course I knew the two humans were listening in, if as you pointed out, I can hear you across a clearing, then I can hear these two across a camp-site." He was almost all the way to her by now, the calm he exuded started to frighten her a bit, though she controlled it, "This Sesshoumaru felt it would be easier for them to know, considering I will be travelling with you-" he reached forward, she didn't know what he was planning to do; but the image of him standing in front of her, his eyes that faint shade of red, his claws still slightly green, brought back that first time she had nearly died by his hand, before she could control it a rush of fear flew through her.

Sesshoumaru felt it this time, his eyes widened and abruptly turned gold, he dropped his hand and looked at her as her fear of him washed through the both of them, he took in what she looked like, her back was to a tree, her eyes wide like a frightened doe's, her breath short and sharp, not with anger, but fear. His eyes narrowed and disgust for himself washed through him, she had just had a nightmare of him attempting to kill her, and what does he do? He stalks her across a clearing, lets his beast take slight control and reaches for her with a hand still green with acid. Why could he not control himself around her? Why did he not think things through as he normally did, when around her? He once thought that she inspired the most interesting reactions from him, that was the understatement of the century. Staring off into the forest he tried to pull his beast back, knowing she could feel it and his primal instincts through the bond, no wonder she feared him.

Kagome watched him struggle with himself, she could feel his disgust yet she could tell it was not directed at her, but at himself. Her fear washed away and without thinking of it, she stepped forward and took his hand, smiling up at him and grinning slightly at his well hidden shock. Punching him lightly on the arm she turned and dragged him back across to her stuff, saying over her shoulder,

"Don't beat yourself up over it. Sometimes I need to remember that you are a dog demon, and you automatically take threats on. Don't worry, I shall mental note myself: Do not antagonise the dog demon, ends in stalking and blatant show of alpha position." She giggled slightly and looking over to her once again catatonic friends she asked with a pleading voice, utilizing the puppy eyes and everything, "Guys can we talk about this later? Please? I need some time…" Her friends dumbly shook their heads and grinning she grabbed her stuff, pushing the now dried (though still disgusting) things into her bag she swung round. Looking at her companions who looked like they were breaking camp in a daze she giggled at them slightly, feeling his amusement as well she grinned at him.

**I think we have done some permanent damage to you comrades mental state**

Her grin widened as she watched them finish up,

-Yeah, well they deserved it, for not telling me that they were listening-

He came up behind her and laid a hand on her shoulder, true regret, if only a little, coming from him,

**I apologise for not warning you, it seemed insignificant at the time**

Looking at him slightly, eyes widened she did not hide her shock at the apology. Inuyasha never apologises and now his homicidal, sadistic half-brother who has tried to kill her more than once does? And he did it first!? She glanced at the sky wondering if the moon was red and the apocalypse was about to occur, before remembering that it was daytime. So instead she smiled at him and said as easily as possible,

-Don't worry about it. I forget, sometimes, that you are a lord and do not answer to such a lowly human as me-

His hand disappeared from her back and light amusement came through to her again,

**As such it should be**

Huffing she punched him on the shoulder, then realising her friends were looking at them expectantly (if not curiously) she turned and started to head from camp. She could just tell that a huge round of explanations was coming, but she couldn't help but think that travelling with Sesshoumaru just might be _fun_.

--

AN: Here is the next one. Sorry this one took a bit longer than usual, I figured Sango and Miroku would have to find out eventually, and preferably not in the hearing range of a certain hanyou. Though when Inuyasha finds out…hehe…heads are gonna roll. Tis going to be fun :D Hope you enjoyed, read and review and hope you had fun :D

-night flame miko


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